Upon this Rock: An Analysis of Register in the Petrine Texts

Abstract

A great deal of effort has been made on the study of Peter since the thesis of Ferdinand Christian Baur raised the question whether there was a severe conflict between a Pauline (non-Judean) group and a Petrine (Judean) group in the early church. The harmony or dichotomy between the Petrine and Pauline Christianity provides the picture of Christian origins. Scholars have probed into the study of the historical and literary Peter, focusing on past events and the descriptions of Peter in literary works, especially the book of Acts. In addition, the memory of the church about Peter is also indicated in order to reconstruct one’s understanding of this character. What seems to be lacking, however, is a more detailed study of the Petrine text itself. In the New Testament, there are two epistles which are attributed to Peter as the author, and both letters can provide more significant sources than any other books. Nevertheless, the relationship between 1 Peter and 2 Peter is still under debate, although both books are attributed to Peter. Few scholars analyze these texts together due to their literary differences. In the book of Acts, on the other hand, there are also several speeches delivered by Peter. One still needs to consider whether the speeches are from Peter or Luke. The question now arises: the common ground of all studies points to the use of language in the texts within which one can find both similarities and dissimilarities, although they are all attributed to Peter. This study, therefore, aims to employ an analysis from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to demonstrate the components of registers which offers the key to an understanding of the language in use in the texts that are attributed to Peter.